It is so easy to be a victim, to blame someone else and to shrug off responsibility. I’m referring to things such as crime and education, employment equity and gender equality at some level, but what I actually want to get into is the power situation and how each of us affects and contributes to load-shedding and unplanned interruptions in electricity supply.
We, as a nation, have been spoilt rotten with cheap and accessible power (well, the more than 75% of the population that is connected to the grid, at least). We have been paying a pittance for energy and this has supported an economic boom and the development of heavy industry in the country. More recent indications are that South Africa’s electricity-supply deficit has become a stumbling block for international investment. It has been identified as one of the largest risks affecting new investment in the country. It seems the big hullabaloo and concern about socio-political climate and economic stability fades into a dim background against the glaring fluorescence of power shortfalls. But how can we as a nation address this issue together and not only point blaming fingers to the utility, the government, past regimes and large industries? Let’s explore the practical things we can do.
Practice number one
Switch on to understand how your power choices affect the bigger picture. This requires a dedicated focus on educating ourselves about our power-consumption patterns and then changing our behaviour to reduce the impact we have. Look at your utility bill to see what your average monthly kWh (kilowatt hour) consumption is and divide this by 30 and by the number of persons in the residence to get your average daily consumption. If my consumption is 15kWh per day, that means that I have consumed an average of 1kW continuously over a 15-hour period. The power used is enough to ensure 24-hour availability of one traffic light. If five people like me can reduce our individual consumption by only 20%, that will ensure one traffic light is working. Do the sums and you’ll see to power 100 000 traffic lights, you will need only 500 000 people to reduce their individual consumption by 20%.
Practice number two
Take the confusion out of peak load, load-shedding and consumption and let’s make them really simple. Consumption refers to the total energy consumed over a period of time and, as such, will always have hours attached to it (kWh or MWh). Peak load refers to the morning and evening periods (6am to 8am and 5pm to 9pm) when most people are showering, bathing, cooking and using kitchen appliances. What happens is that everyone uses these appliances at the same time, loading the power grid with higher demand for electricity. As our grid can only deliver 38 000MW at maximum capacity (all power stations operational), any demand in excess of this cannot be met. This results in grid overloads and potential network failures or simply an inability to supply demanded power. In order to manage these excessive loads, now also occurring during the day as a number of power stations are being upgraded and maintained, the utility sheds some of the load, leaving large parts of the country without power.
Practice number three
There is great potential for power savings through employing simple demand-management principles. This includes use of power-saving light bulbs, solar water heaters and automatic switches, and employing natural light as far as possible. Replacing one 60W bulb with an energy-saving 11W bulb will save on average 71kWh per year (assuming the light is on for four hours every night). This equates to R38, or 85kg of carbon dioxide, saved, while ensuring more power availability for other purposes, such as the country’s hospitals and clinics.
Geysers are by far the biggest culprits in residences, accounting for at least 50% on average of total electricity consumption. Turning geysers off over peak periods and switching them back on afterwards has a positive effect on reducing total demand over peak periods, but in the long run does not reduce the total power consumption related to water heating significantly, as you will heat the water up again. Although this is a great load-management principle, it does not reduce fuel consumption or greenhouse-gas emissions.
Installation of solar water heaters reduce electricity consumption related to water heating by more than 70%, in effect then reducing total household consumption by up to 45%. It also reduces associated fuel consumption and emissions. The average home can save in the order of 12MWh, R6 500 or 14 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by installing a solar water-heating system. A reasonable economic argument in support of the technology!
Practice number four
One of the most difficult things to do is to change behaviour, and power-consumption behaviour is no exception. It is all too easy to turn on all the lights at night, leave the computer on, leave appliances on stand-by, use large volumes of hot water in winter and switch on the electric blankets and heaters. I know our homes were not designed for comfortable winter living, but perhaps we can make them a little easier to live in through insulation of ceilings, instead of having to turn up every heating appliance to the maximum. If you’re not in the room, don’t use it. If you’re not at home, don’t use it. If you can take the chill off by putting on another jersey, do it. These are all common-sense habits that need to be created in order to really build a nation of switched-on power consumers.
Practice number five
Design and choose wisely. When designing a house, office complex, industrial site or another building, ensure use of natural light is maximised, natural ventilation and cooling is employed and insulation to protect against cold is installed. Choose power-wise appliances and install automatic switches for lights and temperature control, to activate only when there is someone in a room.
Practice number six
Educate and lead. There are few things as powerful as teaching through actions. Be the one to switch off the lights; be the one who fills the kettle only enough to make two cups of coffee if that’s all you need. Be the one who identifies opportunities to reduce consumption, thereby saving your home or office money and contributing to ease traffic flow around the country. As a bonus, you are also doing the atmosphere a favour.
Practice number seven
Never believe that your contribution makes no difference, because it does.
Together we can do much more than one utility alone can possibly achieve over the next five years. This problem affects all of us, but we can resolve it through changing our habits and choices.
Great post Sandra, plenty of ways for us to assist…
Ummmm…are we in any way supposed to feel guilty about having cost effective energy supplies? So what if we have had cost effective energy supplies – that’s what skilled, planned, competent nation building based on informed, educated voting and selection of competent business and political leaders is all about. The whole idea is to stick to your knitting and let others get on with theirs, each within their own area of expertise, all interdependent and all working in unison towards a common goal.
The power supply situation in SA at the moment is nothing but the consequence of the government’s agenda to implement a self-enrichment, self aggrandisement programme for ANC lackeys and cronies at the expense of the competent people who for years ran Eskom without any problems and under the disguise of Femtev Ekshen.
Your suggestions to reduce energy consumption are noble but are I feel, patronizing and condescending. Anybody who forks out money for electricity bills, would in any event practice any form of cost reduction – it’s common sense, as common sense as family planning!
Furthermore, with the deteriorating state of the economy and rising unemployment figures, I can think of a variety of arguments against your assertion that we have undergone an industrialisation boom that has drained our power supply capability. South Africa was a fully industrialised nation prior to the transformation of Eskom with a full maintenance, upgrade and expansion programme in place to the extent that some power stations were mothballed or kept in reserve. Since the ANC took over in 1994, there has not been much further industrialisation above the level that already existed.
Lastly, instead of telling us all how we can save 60 W here and 40 W there, how about tackling the issue of saving 3000MW going to the ANC’s mates in Zimbabwe for which Mugabe is not paying one cent!!
Another area of cost cutting would certainly be the hyper-inflated gratuities that the femtev ekshen and rapidly proving to be incompetent management of Eskom sit around anticipating everyday at the office.
With respect Ma’am – there are intelligent, thinking people who would regard an article like this, as much for it’s omissions as for it’s patronizing content as extremely offensive and typically selective journalism and spin-doctoring. We all know what the problem at Eskom is – why assign responsibility and accountability to the man on the street for gross incompetencies at Eskom?
Actually Ngodoi, it is attitudes like yours that are part of the problem. Lets none of us do anything. Lets all point fingers and blame Eskom. Very smart indeed, and as I cook over a candle ten years from now, I’ll feel so much better knowing that it’s just not my fault. And in 100 years, when my grand children sit over their candle, I am sure they will feel quite happy that we did nothing about it in our own generation. Because its Eskom’s fault. This kind of attitude makes me terrified at the prospect of rousing the entire globe to act in small ways to reduce climate change.
And pray tell me George – just what exactly is Eskom and the government doing about the shambles they have created? Cost cutting exercises in my home amounts to nothing if I’m not getting any power to reduce the cost of in the first place does it?
How by the way, does my “Attitude” have anything to do with enough free electricity going to Zimbabwe to light up the whole of Joburg. Yes let’s all blame Eskom and let’s all blame the government because if you haven’t been living on planet Zog for the last 20 years you would have noticed that that is exactly where the blame lies apart from which it is ALL the ANC Government has been doing – blaming everybody else and their dog for their inability to deliver basic services. I’m not interested in saving a few bulb’s worth of electricity in my home – I’m thinking a little bigger, like how about convening a fully qualified competent board of enquiry into what the problem is and replacing incompetent fools earning millions of Rands with people who can do the job properly. Trust me, while we’re all busily trying to cut a few costs a bulb at a time at home instead of removing these buffoons all the while justifying their buffoonery with “Addressing past imbalances” you WILL be sitting over candles in two years time eating canned food cooked on an open fire made of sun dried compressed turd – Practice # 1223
I’d love to see what the next genre of spin-doctoring is going to produce in terms of shifting responsibility from the ones responsible when the water reticulation infrastructure starts going the same way as the electricity? I can just imagine it. “Practice #1. Eat less. Practice # 2. try to only take a dump every three days instead of every day. Practice #3 flush every second dump – not every dump. Practice #4 filter your urine through a graphite filled sock and purify it with a chlorine tab at only 35 cents each and Practice #5 try to ignore the sewerage flowing freely past you front gate as well as the burst water mains a little further on because Mr. Ndabaningi Magaramombe – chief engineer at Dept Water Affairs hasn’t done his job and was last seen on holiday in Hawaii with his wife, girlfriend, mistress and ten kids. Oh by the way – Do not forget – It’s ALL Apartheid’s fowlt..vote ANC!! Viva !! Mahala everything and what we cannot deliver mahala (which is anything) it will be….Altogether now….Apputt-het’s fault!!
Oh please man!!!
Ngodoi – While it might not be a cutting edge article, it is a cutting edge issue. The more voices the better. We have to change our electricity use patterns whether we like it or not. There simply isn’t enough generating capacity. Quit pointing fingers; pre-democratic Eskom had too much generating capacity – mothballed 3 power stations at what cost? Why did they build them? To give their broderbond mates a couple of juicy contracts or simply a case of bad planning – familiar ring?
AND SANDY
Point 7. BLAME EISHKOM
In 1997, as part of his part time honours degree, a supply planner with Eskom did an exercise on supply overload. He even used existing Eskom reports and documents and showed that everyone at Eskom could see the brick wall of supply overload storming down on the nation. I couldn’t believe his assignment because no corporate institution that I’ve ever worked at could be that stupid or that arrogant… Well, I was wrong, so wrong.
In a crisis, it takes 6 years to build a steam generating station. One can even do it more quickly by using some of the large package units. Even after 1997, the Idiot Directors at Eskom could have taken A year to make up their mind and we still wouldn’t have had the crisis.
Point 8. Fire everyone from Senior Manager upwards and replace them with their white predecessors who did the job well but were forced out of the organisation. Middle management also needs to be fired because those who were competent enough to read the simple reports didn’t scream, kick and ultimately resign as is honourable in situations such as this. Those that couldn’t read, well…
What made it difficult for the inexperienced and ability challenged black replacements at Eskom was the amazing load planning by the previous white (generally afrikaans) technical staff had enabled the utility to run the grid at about 80% while having generating stations out of the grid for refurbishment. This percentage is high by international standards. But of course our bright black brothers thought that even though they had no experience, they could do better.
How much has that ill conceived arrogance cost in accidents, in lost productivity and lost jobs and in general frustration.
It is time for us people of South Africa to stop pussy footing round the general incompetence due to the wrong people being put in the wrong jobs, for what ever reason!
This is especially true of us old Liberals, Socialists and “Commies” who fought (or now claimed to have fought) against the arrogant Afrikaaner of the 60’s 70’s and 80’s Yet stand by expounding white guilt by association (or is it skin colour?) for the past and just watch as our great country sinks.
The Afrikaans soldier has an amusing anecdote for those who claim allegiance to something after the event. They say the Recces, a very successful and macho unit in the army only had a thousand members. Isn’t it strange they ask that you meet Recces in every pub, shabeen and braaifleis you go to anywhere in the world. The only problem is that all of the Recce members are so psychologically messed up by post traumatic stress that they never go out, not to pubs or shabeens or braaifleises.
Well, whatever your political leaning, FIND THE GUTS AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD…
Actually , the best thing we can do is learn a hard lesson and elect people into power who are able to see to it that we don’t face problems like this.
Next step: hold them accountable.
No amount of tree hugging and blame sharing will help if the people refuse to remove the culprits from power.
The points you have outlined above are relevant to users of electricity regardless of the state of their supplier/government. You are moving focus from accountability and trying to make normal eco-awareness (even what maybe called ((dare I say it)) ‘common sense’ in some parts of the world) seem like emergency measures to be taken given the current unacceptable situation …very dangerous Sandy Caroll very dangerous indeed.
This is why: you do not touch on any of the far reaching effects of the electricity situation, things like inflation; overseas investors; 2010; what will the price of food be once supermarkets have had to dump spoiled stock for weeks on end?
President (for now) Mbeki’s acceptance of blame although totally unexpected is not going to shoulder those costs – you and I will and when you are unable to earn the money that is required to shoulder those costs because your shop was also shut as result of blackouts …I’m sure you are beginning to see the problem.
Don’t reduce the issues of recognizing South Africa’s need for leaders chosen not with emotion but with intelligence (because that IS what the Eskom/electricity is actually all about, along with the crime rate and our relationships with our neighbors) to the electrical equivalent of placing a brick in the cistern to save water.
I suspect that even if South Africa sees advice like the above, the collective effort would amount to little more than a few percentage points. The reality, dear Sandy, is that only a select group of whities will heed the call, because the national obsession in SA is “every man for himself”.
And the reality is that it will never be enough under the current circumstances. I can understand why Ngodoi is so angry – and he is not alone in his sentiments. And I agree with him. It’s like saying, “Let them eat cake.” While Eskom and Government are both now talking about punnishing people/business for using power, I have yet to see any comment coming from Treasury that compromised businesses and citizens will be given some kind of tax relief. On top of HAVING to pay for private policing, private education and private healthcare, South Africans now have to pay for private power. What was once Africa’s powerhouse will be turned into Africa’s poorhouse in five years because the world simply will not wait for SA to get off its collective arse and join the global economy.
It reminds of John Cleese in Fawlty Towers after Manuel cocks up some building work.
Says Cleese “Oh so it’s my fault. Naughty, naughty me. I must be punished then mustn’t I. You naughty, naughty boy”
Hey John Bond. Interesting perspective. Point is govt screwed up yes, and we need to apparently help with fixing the problem. The issue is from a net energy balance, Sandy, the individual has little impact – I mean 2500MW shortfall for an entire day! The ONLY way to fix that IS to switch a whole bunch of areas off. It is not load shedding it is demand management – subtle. These are not brown outs they are black outs. We can B&M as much as we like it is here to stay for a while. I would go for the solar thing too, but how many people have 10k for the investment ? Why is this not subsidised almost wholly by Eskom ? Yes solar, batteries and inverter also good, only the average household would need to spend about 15-30k. Also not a cheap option. The only way to fix the balance is to increase power costs and actually build the damn power plants. If you are worried about the greenery then I am afraid you have lost the bigger picture of reality – look at the thermodynamic law of energy when you go and buy your groceries, or fill you fuel tank. Energy demand is proportional to population – if you really want to fix the problem vote for birth control like they did in China years back.
I bought a generator and will be installing needed switch for DB board. I do not like being held ransom by people who were warned and did very little. At least I now have control and not them.
Practical information – thanks.
So the new guard in the ANC statements regarding delivery on more jobs looks pretty flimsy at this point. Those with power – should spend more time on how to create “a better life for all” instead of 90% of their energy with internal political battles resolving it appears around keeping senior members caught (apparently) “increasing personal wealth” at the expense of a “better life for all” from defending their *&^% ups.
Supplying enough electricity to cover the WORST CASE scenario where everyone theoretically turns on every appliance at the same time is the GOVERNMENT’S job, via their state-monopoly corporation, Eskom.
When the Luftwaffe was bombing England in WW2, the competent Churchill government could demand blackouts in order to put off the German bombers, but even in such a dire crisis pretty much every Briton could get his or her lights come on when they flicked the light switch.
It’s not the PEOPLES’ fault, nor is it their responsibility, to bail out the inept ANC government and all their affirmatively-actioned “transformational” executive appointees in state-owned monopolies for the inability to deliver power at all times to all electrical appliances.
This is a crisis entirely of the ruling regime’s OWN making. Make them own and wear it.
Other people have said it as well. The real problem is political accountability, or actually the lack thereof. A while ago California also had rolling blackouts due to a badly bungled privitization of electricity suppliers.
What did the traditionally Democratic voters of California do? Save power? Well, maybe, but actually they removed the Democratic governer from office and voted in a Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In Californian’s minds, the link was clear. Bad leadership decisions caused their electricity problems. The extremely simpe solution: vote for somebody else. Use your power at the ballot box to better your personal situation.
Why then is there then a disconnect in African voters’ minds between their personal problems and their bad leaders? Why does it not occur to the residents of Khutsong to simply vote for somebody else if they are unhappy with being incorporated into North West?
In any Western country the ANC would have lost the next election hands down due to its utter incompetence and sheer incapacity to manage a p*ss up in a bottle store. No rational democracy would have forgiven its politicians for the current electricity disaster. But this is Africa. Political accountability is a joke.
If the South African electorate is too thick to use their power at the ballot box to better their own situations, one can have absolutely no sympathy when the lights go off.
Idiot voters deserve to be left in the dark. People get the government they deserve. Continue voting for the ANC, and you, the voters, deserve to have no power, to drive on roads full of potholes and to drink water contaminated by faeces because the ANC town councils upriver are too incompetent to manage their sewerage works.
Fire the government and Eskom top brass and then I will try to make a difference BUT NOT before some heads roll.
Yes Anton white South Africans did vote for somebody else when they realised that the Nats were messing up big time. If my memory serves me right it was a Nat leader FW de Klerk who gave up power in 1994 after the white population had kept them in power for 46 unbroken years. The selective memory of my white fellow South Africans never cease to amaze.
Dear Sandy
The flowery, contrived use of language in you article does not hide your tactic – blame the victim, and get him to fix the mess while leaving the culprits whose incompetence caused the problem to go free, and free to do it again!
The problem cannot be cured except by removing the fools who got us into this mess. As it stands now, what is to stop them compounding the problem?
May I say “There are none so ignorant of their ignorance as the ignorant”. The Minister of Minerals and Energy, Buyelwa Sonjica, is a good example, judging on her recent pronouncements.
Consider this: Eskom cannot supply enough power to its existing consumers and yet the ANC government has promised to supply power to the proposed Coega smelter. This would be a significant percentage of Eskom’s power generating capacity, and yet this is in the full knowledge that we are already short of power. Does this sound sensible to anyone?
Despite lies and denials, it seems that Eskom continues to supply power to Zimbabwe and it appears that that Zim is not paying a cent for it. Does this sound sensible to anyone?
Serious thought too must be given to stopping supplying heavily subsidized electricity to the Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique and the other smelters in this country. Eskom doesn’t reaveal the figures how much energy this would involve, but it must be considerable. Mozambique could then offset its smelter power requirement somewhat with power from its very own Cahora Bassa. Does this sound sensible to anyone?
The ANC inherited a well respected, competent company in Eskom. Respected by its consumers because of the low cost and reliability of power delivery. Respected by the international financial community which was a factor in enabling Eskom to raise loans cheaply.
In the early 1990s, Eskom had excess capacity because of the closing down of the uranium enrichment plant at Pelindaba, a major consumer of electricity.
That has all changed now with the new management put into place by the ANC under its racist policies. Apparently knowledge and competence does not matter anymore.
Power stations had been “mothballed” because of excess capacity for use sometime in the future. Or they were supposed to have been mothballed. I say this because if they had been correctly mothballed, why it is taking so long to resurrect these power stations?
I don’t want to knock power saving measures – such as fluorescent light bulbs, solar water heaters and remote geyser switching devices.
My first experience of remotely switched geyser controls was in South Africa in the 1980s and I still cannot understand why it is not being used more extensively today.
I first used the low-wattage fluorescent light bulbs in the 1990s when, as a resident in Canada, we were supplied with these “free” (together with other energy-saving gadgets) by the electricity supply company. Of course they were not free; we paid for them in higher electricity tariffs. A significant point is that these lights did not measure up to the light output of the incandescent light bulbs that they were supposed to replace and the life was nowhere near the life advertised.
The problem rapidly became evident – the focus of this particular (Canadian) power supply authority changed from electricity supply (its prime function) to conservation (a political notion). The result was inevitable; power generating capacity soon because deficient. Fortunately, power could be bought from the North American power grid. This option, however, is not available to South African consumers. Eskom is being guaranteed a monopoly status by the government and little more can be bought elsewhere from our African neighbours.
The Eskom debacle comes at a very convenient time for the global warming fraternity (or maybe more correctly, the sorority).
Even the prophet of global warming doom, Al Gore, does not really believe the hoopla about man-made CO2 being the main cause of warming. The “carbon footprint” for just one of his residences is 20 TIMES that of the average AMERICAN. My guess is that Gore’s TOTAL “carbon footprint” (for his other homes, offices, studios, jet travel etc) must be at least 100 TIMES that of the average person in this PLANET. Of course he assuages his audiences by buying indulgences known as “carbon credits”. Where does he buy his carbon credits for his exculpation? The company, of course, of which he is an owner and Chairman!
His presentation “An Inconvenient Truth” earns him $110,000 for each presentation even though the fundamental hypotheses in his presentation (the so-called “hockey-stick graph” and the ice-core graphs) have been proved to be distortions by science and the law (in a case to prevent the Labour Party indoctrinating school children with Gore’s movie, at the High Court , in England).
“Global warming” is earning its proponents a lot of money.
Sandy, you probably have in mind solutions such a large-scale wind power. These are not sustainable in the economic sense. A table supplied through our government, shows Denmark listed as the most expensive provider of electrical energy at US$ 0.23 / kWh and SA at the bottom with US$ 0.04. Other countries using wind energy feature at the most expensive while those using coal, gas and atomic energy at the cheaper end of the scale.
It makes you think, or at least, it should make you think.
Electricity generated by the use of non-renewable fuels, coal, oil, gas, nuclear, appears cheaper because the costing is flawed. Their damage to the environment which is significant and long term, long long term in the case of nuclear, is not included in their costs and it should be.